March 2022
The 40-part AppleTV series Lincoln’s Dilemma is engrossing and informative on so many levels; while fully acknowledging the pain many Black Americans today feel in the presence of statuary or landmarks that claim Lincoln as the great emancipator - arguing vehemently and correctly that Blacks earned their own emancipation, through their years of suffering and their uprisings during the Civil War and their valiant service in the still-biased Union army - the series recognizes the great accomplishment of Lincoln and, most important, his evolution over time, over the course of his presidency - initially only pledging to restore the union w/out any particular view on slavery or emancipation, gradually, in part through his own suffering and loss, feeling bold enough to use emancipation in order to move the war toward its conclusion and hold the union of states - and up to the time of his death by which point he recognized the importance of emancipation regardless of political or military expedience. Told with excellent use of period photographs and documents, with lots of voice-over readings of key statements by Lincoln, those who knew him, those who suffered in the war and in the confederacy, and in particular Douglass, who spurred Lincoln on like a living conscience, though they met face to face only three times. The series is narrated by a collection of Lincoln schools, historians, and journalists, all of them on point and clear, giving me faith that there must be many great young historians at work today and teaching their craft and knowledge to today’s generation of college students - a really impressive group effort. Jacqueline Olive and Barak Goodman direct, based on the book Abe by David S. Reynolds.
Elem Klimov’s Come and See (1985) has to be the best war, or actually anti-war, film I’ve ever seen - why it’s so far under the radar is a bit mysterious and must have something to do w/ its being one of the few great films come of the post-Stalin era Soviet Union (another being the much more recent Beanpole). Come and See (yes, bad title) is in the tradition of All Quiet on the Western Front (the first anti-war film I ever saw) as we follow a young man’s induction into military life and armed combat. The setting both geographical and temporal is a little muddy at first, at least to this American viewer, but I see by the end that it was set during World War II and involves an small Soviet military unit taking up arms against the invading Nazi army - always a morally confusing moment, as it seems strange to be on the side of the Soviets, but an enemy of my enemy is a friend. Apparently it’s set in Belarus, and the film goes through what feel like several “acts”: initially the young man is essentially impressed into the Soviet Army to the horror of his parents who need him on the small family farm. He is taken in by an Army unit on the march, and all seems well and jovial for a time - it’s like a camp!- and on a mission he encounters a young woman whom he seems to fall for (the film, like many Soviet films, is quite chaste); suddenly they’re under aerial attack - vivid, realist, scary. He later makes his way back to his family farm, which in now deserted - everyone’s been killed by the Germans. On he goes - the next “movement” being the appropriation from a farmer of a dairy cow - an incredible sequence that ends in despair. And then the most amazing part - a segment of may 20 minutes, maybe longer, of the German overthrow of and occupation of a small town - just an astonishing sequence of cruelty and brutality, that never feels gratuitous - just horrifying; I know of no other sequence like this. (The young woman reappears, somewhat changed.) So the film is 2+ hours and it’s without any redeeming humor or sentiment; insofar as it’s a justification of Soviet brutality (to its own), to hell with it, but insofar as it’s a filmmakers view of the horrors of war, it’s must-see.
The quirkiness and oddity of Haruki Murakami’s fiction has at last become evident to contemporary filmmakers (years ago I tried to persuade friend director AW to adapt Wild Sheep Chase to an American setting), with the latest venture being Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car (2021); should it be 3 hours long? Probably not (we watched in the 3 one-hour segments, making it much like a miniseries) but in any format it’s an excellent film about a theater director coping with the death of his wife and with several realizations about his wife’s infidelity, all of which lead to surprising outcomes and developments across the span of this epic; much of the film has do w/ the director’s taking on a multi-language production of Uncle Vanya (another fave among filmmakers, for obvious reasons), which at first looks as if it will become one of worst productions ever staged but surprisingly it becomes a beautiful project that touches on various aspects of the lives of the actors (and others). The highlight-reel segment is the long car ride in which the lead actor in the play gives the director (Hidetoshi Nishijima) a spill of info about his late wife, most of which surprises us, some of which surprises him, all of which may or may not be a lie. Definitely an intelligent film; the slow pacing and lack of high melodrama will mean it’s not for all viewers, but patience pays off - the film becomes better as the plot moves along and we become accustomed to its pace, so to speak. I’d like to read or re-read the source story.
Radu Jude’s 2016 film from Romania, Scarred Hearts (the title is awkward, at least in English) is a beautiful if painful medical odyssey, as we follow a young man (early 20s) in 1935 Romania as he enters a TB asylum; the care he receives may have been adequate in its day but from our vantage looks brutal and ineffective: essentially the well-meaning doctor punctures the patient’s stomach to siphon off infectious pus - extremely painful - the puts the patient in a body cast, essentially making him immobile for months - with obvious physical (and mental) deterioration. The actor portrays a well-known (in Romania) poet and novelist of the 30s, Max Bletcher, whose words open each segment of the film; it’s obvious to all viewers that Bletcher (played as “Emmanuel” Lucian Teodor Rus) is dying - but over the course of his demise he falls in love w/ a young former patient who spends time at the facility. Obviously this film evokes Magic Mountain, but this is hardly in the same social (or intellectual, or medical) orbit - as the life of the patients is painful and difficult, there are several riotous episodes, lots of carousing, much open, even encouraged, often painful sex, some anti-Semitism directed at Emmanuel - it’s by no means a resort or a place anyone would ever choose to stay for a minute. His well-off Jewish family members do the best they can for “Manu,” but there’s only so much that medical science of the day can do; his awkward journey at the end to Hungary for more extensive supposedly helpful surgery is horrifying and sorrowful to watch. The whole film is photographed beautifully as a series of long takes from a still (or slowly approaching) camera; I don’t think there’s a single close-up in the whole film - especially strange in that most of the dialog is spoken by actors immobilized and on their backs facing the ceiling. In short, a unique, troubling, yet powerful film.
Don’t ask me to tell you the plot of Harry and Jack Williams’s series, The Tourist (2022, HBO) as it is almost impossible to recount let alone relate all of the twists and turns, many surprising, most of which make sense - I mean, yes, you could log off saying “that could never happen,” but throw yourself into the unlikelihood and go for the ride, which is a lot of fun, often laugh-out-loud funny, and engrossing - right through to the conclusion which leans hopefully forward to a 2nd season. Roughly, this (poorly named) series follow a man driving in the Outback who is pursued he knows not why and, following a brutal crash, has lost all of his memory; over the course of the 6 episodes we learn that the is being pursued by gangsters - or maybe he is a gangster? - and aided by a beautiful woman whom he may (or may not?) have known her in his previous life and pursued by the Australian cops - incompetent? just inexperienced? or in on the scheme? You get the picture, or maybe you don’t, but it’s fun and engaging all the way.
Karel Reisz’s Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960) still stands as one of the great films of its era, capturing the look and mood of post-war (I think the story was set sa 1948?) London - shot in industrial Nottingham, every moment - from the first moment of men like automatons in some sort of factory to the close overlooking a once-pastoral hillside now scarred by housing developments - dark and oppressive; as with the other Angry Young Man films, this one focuses on an angry Arthur, played well by Albert Finney, fun-loving but ultimately destructive, cruel, self-centered, dreaming of a better life but doing nothing bring that about, full of hate toward all authority figures, belligerent and unfaithful to women and to his “pals” - yet, somehow, we feel, what choice does he have? At least he’s full of life and not shut off from life his fellow oppressed workers. The film is based on a novel by Alan Sillitoe - who also wrote the screenplay - and it will of course remind most viewers of The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner, based on a Sillitoe story - probably a better film because of a more rounded central character and its beautiful, sorrowful ending - whereas SN&SM ends abruptly and ironically in a way that doesn’t do justice to much of the rich material.
Many takes on Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s vast and diverse collection of works, some great some just eccentric, and one of the latter would be Chinese Roulette (1976). It starts as a surprisingly “French” drawing-room comedy as a husband and wife each set out for a weekend tryst w/ mistress or lover (the lead character was supposedly heading for a meeting in Osloa) when both couples converge at the same getaway, a “mansion” that one of the couples owns. These are 4 sophisticates so rather than blow up in anger they accept the switch of couples and engage in smirch civilized if repressed chatter and recreations, such as an on-going chess match. The movie never becomes what we viewers were led to believe: it’s not Cosi nor Midsummer Night’s Dream - it’s just - I don’t even know what; the 4 adults (and one of their kids who’s the most malevolent of all) begin to engage in some weird party games including the eponymous roulette but for me it was impossible to follow the rules of significance of that game nor of any of the other distractions. By the end I was just puzzled: Who are these weirdos, including the household staff, one of whom is writing some sort of Nietzsche-like profundities and absurdities, so who is he and who cares? WMF seems to have lost interest in the film aside from its being an opportunity for shots from many odd angles and perspectives; otherwise, it was probably a quick one-off for this highly productive filmmaker but one that would fall at or near the bottom of his list, and mine.
Jim Jarmusch’s Stranger Than Paradise (1984) is great to watch today, a time capsule of roadside life - America looked so different then, in some ways much more industrial and grimy and in other respects vacant, untouched - and of life in a dingy apartment in Brooklyn, now probably renting or a condo in the millions. The story - classic motif, a stranger comes to town - involves the unexpected arrival in a young man whose 16-year-old cousin suddenly appears at his doorstep, a new arrival fro Hungary. As we watch her hang around with cousin Will and his pal Eddie it becomes obvious that they’re going nowhere - petty grifters, aimless - and that she’ll do all right in America: she’s attractive, animated, and she picks everything up fast. The plot, thin as it may be )(which is ok in the totally non-=commercial film0, involves a road trip to Cleveland and an extended trip to Florida, where they boys blow their $ at the track; the end is deliberately open and inconclusive, much like a Joyce story. The cinematography, b/w, a series of scenes in which the camera is nearly still and we are allowed to absorb the scene in detail (I think these are called master shots - what’s unusual is that this film is composed solely of such shots). All of these shots help us understand the context of the time and place of these characters - so distant today! - and some are beautiful in their own right and hilarious, as for example the long shot - 2 minutes? - of the threesome with one picked-up friend (interested in the girl) as we watch them watch what seems to be a Kung Fu movie. And almost forgot to mention the terrific, highly dissonant, score for a string quartet (I think), mostly in the 2nd and 3rd acts of the film, plus the added bonus of clips from Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’s Got a Spell on You, terrific performer froth 50s little known today (nice touch making the Hungarian teen her champion). Really nice debut (?) film from JJ, who’s gone on to a great career in non-Hollywood cinema, about as far from the studio system as one can get.
King Richard (Reynaldo Marcus Green, 2021) gets it about right, as far as I can tell from following the Williams sisters and their rise to stardom over the year. We’re left with a suitably ambivalent feeling about their father/coach, Richard Williams, in Will Smith’s (deserved) Oscar role: yes, RW deserves praise for his raising his 5 daughters in a wholesome and loving manner, and esp for doing so in the challenging environment of Compton/LA, where he is threatened and beaten by thugs who harass his daughters Venus and Serena. His faith in their abilities and his intelligent coaching and managing their careers - despite so many potential pitfalls and such hostile and racist reception by so many in and on the circuit. That said, it’s not hard to sympathize with the neighbor who suspects him of child abuse, as he is extremely hard on his daughters and a martinet on certain aspects of family discipline (his wife, Aunjanue Ellis, is a good counterweight, and I loved the scenes where she told him off - the only person who could possibly do so). RA knew that his daughters would become stars - but we also have to recognize that the world is full of parents who overestimate the brilliance of their kids - and to an outsider he would seem like one of those, at least at first. The film culminates in the ultimate success of the girls, Venus in particular - and does not even touch on the issues of what about the other girls in the family? If memory serves, at least one did not come to a good end. I would not say the film is “scrubbed clean,” as we definitely see some of the flaws in RW’s system and his confrontational behavior, but it was obviously made w/ the cooperation of the W family so it was definitely not going to cross any lines. All told, worth watching, esp for tennis fans and for those curious about what spurred Smith on to such hostility at the awards ceremony: he’d been primed for anger,
